The Future of Marketing

Where's My Rocket Pack?

What will your business look like in the future?

Back in the 80's I remember watching Beyond 2000, and way back then I was promised that in the future we would be travelling to work with rocket packs on our backs. I'm still waiting for my rocket pack.

Recently I attended a small peer group discussion about the future of business hosted by a futurist colleague of mine Craig Rispin.

Much like the magical 'seers' of the past, it's Craig's job to see into the future and determine what's coming down the pipe. What will the future look like and what form will it take when presenting opportunities and threats.

Based on that discussion, It looks to be a fascinating journey ahead, but at the same time a very frightening one for those unaccustomed to change.

Many of the jobs of today look to become extinct in just five short years. While many new jobs will pop into reality in the same length of time. We're already seeing the many industries either evolving or dying.

The taxi industry is under attack from now Billion dollar start-up Uber. If you don't know much about Uber, you need to look them up. Get a taxi, private car or rideshare from your mobile phone in minutes, sounds like a traditional model right? Wrong - Your drivers don't need to be professional chauffeurs with commercial licences, they are you, your friend, neighbour, anybody with a licence in their own car being paid a commission (they've outsourced the workforce)!

Have you been to the supermarket lately? Did you foresee that we would all be working the checkout in 2015? And here we are, progress. It's surprising what the crowd will do when it becomes the norm. Customer Service isn't dead, it will continue to be an important part of all human interactions, but when it comes to robotics, it appears that ease-of-use and the absence of 'bad' customer service is driving the change.

So what will the future look like in your business?

For Crimson Fox, things will change and we need to be ready. Big data from companies like Google and Amazon are getting better and better at predicting human behaviour. What a customer will do. What a customer will buy. We have to be able to tap into that information, but not to run a formula, or to ascertain an algorithm. We need to be able to read between the data, formulate the insights and discover the applications. Because the application will always be in flux the future will require Marketing engineers to design, plan and execute.

In the future, so many roles will be outsourced as many already are. But outsource your vision and mission at your own risk. Clarity before strategy. Creating Clarity in this ever changing world will be the key to effective strategy then implementation. It's certainly our focus, so we can be there for you when things get hairy. Some may say it's already a little hairy, but if this is a taste of the future we could be in for a good time, cause we love it.

In a world where drones will be delivering mail in Switzerland this summer and where a microchip has sensors that are 7nm wide (about the size of a strand of human DNA), you know we're just glimpsing the tip of the iceberg. The question is, will your business and/or business model still exist in the next decade? Or will it simply evolve?

But how to get started? Start looking at the start-up businesses making a killing, you can find lists of them online. Start looking at what is being predicted and what comes to pass shortly after, the business futurists, TED talks and science fiction are a good place to start.

As you know, the only constant is change, so create a culture of change, a culture of resilience. Create a business that thrives while everyone else is afraid to take the next step, paralysed by indecision while you secure the next opportunity.

The future can be a scary place and it can create a scarcity mindset, but it's my belief that if you embrace the change that is coming, there will truly be an abundance for everyone. The future looks bright, but it's possible I may still be a little disappointed. We may skip the rocket packet completely and move straight to taking drones to work. See you in the future!